Petulant Name Calling, Ugly Xenophobia and Racism
Emeryville's Famous City Council Collegiality Evaporates
News Analysis/Opinion
The ugly specter of xenophobia was raised at the December 12th City Council meeting along with petulant name calling and something else by one Council member against another when Councilwoman Ally Medina, reversing the long storied Emeryville City Council culture of collegiality, attacked her new colleague, the incoming Kalimah Priforce. Eight days after the outburst, at another meeting, Ms Medina announced her resignation from the City Council, citing personal reasons of a financial nature.
The disobliging attitude against Council member Priforce, who had been sworn in only moments before the attack, came after he had respectfully expressed his discomfort in Council member John Bauters being selected by the Council majority to serve a second back-to-back term as mayor. Ms Medina defended the selection and accused Mr Priforce of sexism with his stated discomfort, calling out his male privilege and disparaging him as a "man" who will not be listened to.
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| Former Council member Dianne Martinez and current member Ally Medina. They're panicked. |
After a San Francisco friend of Mr Priforce phoned in during the public comment period, defending him against the attack, Council member Medina denounced the commenter as having come from outside Emeryville and therefore illegitimate. “Be well aware that with a simple public records act request we can look at all of your text messages and confirm who is and who is not from Emeryville”, she warned Mr Priforce with xenophobic and autocratic flair. Left unmentioned by Ms Medina is the red carpet treatment given to every out-of-town developer who comes to Emeryville with an apartment tower proposal she (and the rest of them) always lavish praise on. Didactically lecturing Council member Priforce and acting as if Emeryville were not a regional player in power politics, ugly xenophobia is only to be aimed at Mr Priforce it would seem, others are to get a pass.
Noteworthy was the fact that the rest of the Council sat in stoney silence during Ms Medina’s tirade against our new Councilman, letting her comments stand unchallenged.
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| Council member Kalimah Priforce ....the reason the City Council is so distraught. |
The first-two meetings ordeal faced by our new Council member Kalimah Priforce was shocking to be sure. It leaves us wondering why. Mr Priforce made statements on the campaign trail that would indicate he might be an independent voice on the Council, it is true. He was heard questioning Emeryville’s new pro-marketplace housing policies for instance. But the force aligned against him was strangely disproportional. Is this to be a new era of Council infighting we’re entering? If Mr Priforce, who is Black, actually is an independent voice, that will likely be the case. But the disrespect shown by the Council majority and the asymmetrical force of the attack makes us think there’s more at play here. Name calling and lecturing the incoming City Councilman? We think the Council is unduly afraid of Mr Priforce. We think this is mostly racism.
Excellent rendition of the events of the City Council. The abrupt resignation of the unhinged crypto-facsist tactician Medina is a blessing that we hope can embrace. Hopefully racism/sexism and all manner of ills in society will not be tolerated, rather a new breed if independent members can begin to rebuild involvement (we have no Chsmbrr of Commerce), respect (we have no Code of Ethics) and great schools (we are small enough to have the best schools in the country) and affordable housing, which depends on all three systems working well. Welcome Priforce and Mourra.
ReplyDeleteI watched the video and I was shocked at the incivility and disrespect shown to our new council member. Good thing both Medina and Martinez are gone but what about the rest who didn't say a word while this played out? As mayor, John Bauters needs to speak out and offer healing words and action or this council is doomed. Racism doesn't belong in Emeryville.
ReplyDeleteThe council is TRIGGERED!
ReplyDeleteIt's unclear what racism was evoked.
ReplyDeleteReally? You just can't see it? How about when they thought it was necessary to lecture Council elect Priforce about collegiality? Why did they do that? What exactly is it about Kalimah Priforce that makes them want to lecture him on collegiality before he was sworn in? What is it about Kalimah Priforce that makes the Council want to call his friends illegitimate? Other Council members have had people from out of town comment in support of them and it's never been a problem until Kalimah Priforce. Why is that? What is it about Kalimah Priforce that's so triggering to this Council (to quote the earlier commenter)?
DeleteIf I recall your brother was the once who initiated the theme, and offered advice on managing issues. Why aren't you asking him?
DeleteIf you don't know what people are thinking and feeling, it's wrong to accuse them of racism. That term has become a convenient sousaphone blast, a cliche.
ReplyDeleteSpoken like someone from a dominant oppressor race. It's a cliché to bourgeois people who are not harmed by it. To the oppressed, it's an existential threat.
DeleteIt sounds like the idea that racism exists makes you feel uncomfortable.
You seem to be an extremely aggrieved person. What triggered your anger? I'm truly interested.
DeleteWho are you speaking to? Mr Anonymous or me? If me, I'll say I am aggrieved, yes. What triggers my anger is bad public policy from my local government, especially if it is politically motivated or even worse if it is based on hatred like xenophobia or racism. That has no place in Emeryville government function. Besides being unethical it is so unnecessary.
DeleteLet Martin Luther King remind us, "There comes a time when silence is betrayal." When Kalimah Priforce was being lambasted by Ally Medina, during the last city council meeting, where was the voice of the mayor, John Bauters, and the newly appointed council members, David Mourra and Courtney Welch? These are the individuals we voted for to be our voice of conscience. These are the people who represent us in the government. Their silence is a betrayal of our faith in them. Has the city council become an independent entity asserting its group-think mentality to become a fiefdom of its own devoid of public accountability? Kalimah Priforce's presence is a much needed voice of inquiry and integrity. During his campaign he spoke of installing the first ever Code of Ethics for Emeryville! Why has Emeryville never had a Code of Ethics? Ally Medina's aggressive revilement of Mr. Priforce was, by its eerie silence, condoned by John Bauters, David Mourra, and Courtney Welch and we the residents of Emeryville should see this as a clear indication of the dangerously widening gap between the issues that matter to Emeryille citizens and the self-absorbed aspirations of the four city council members who stood by to denounce Mr. Priforce by their maligning and silence. Is this egregious behavior a harbinger of things to come? We citizens must take a stand!
ReplyDeleteJohn Bauters responded to a January 2022 Emeryville resident request for creating a Code of Ethics and said that it will be addressed by August of 2022. It is now December with one week left of the year and the Code of Ethics has never been brought up all year! Bauter's promises are pie-crusts... easily broken or left to rot. Bauters has done nothing. A Code of Ethics would hold all council members accountable. It is clear that they do not want to be accountable! This is the quality of the city council we have had. I hope that Kalimah Priforce's presence will ignite a much-needed change!
ReplyDeleteXenophobia? Point of fact, Brooklyn is in the same country as Emeryville. It isn't another country.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure what you are talking about. Councilwoman Medina was saying Councilman Priforce’s friends from San Francisco (and other places outside of Emeryville) are illegitimate because they’re not from Emeryville. That is xenophobic. The fact that Mr Priforce was from New York previously has nothing to do with this culture of xenophobia now verbalized on our Council. No Council members have expressed any notions of illegitimacy of Mr Priforce for being originally from New York (at least that I’m aware of). If not being from Emeryville were considered unacceptable for any Emeryville City Council member, we would not have any city council members at all.
DeleteIncidentally, xenophobia is not confined to national boundaries. Here is the definition: "Xenophobia is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion."
That is an amazing leap of logic.
ReplyDelete